Barbuzzo
As soon as you walk into Barbuzzo, the smell of the wood-burning oven fills your nose. This has to be one of the most delightful, welcoming smells on earth, and immediately had me thinking happy thoughts about the 6th venture in Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran’s takeover of 13th Street.
We started with olives and pig popcorn. The olives were a just right starter — a small enough portion that you don’t feel like you’re eating them forever, and sprinkled with Marcona almonds and fried rosemary for a little extra punch. The “pig popcorn”, aka pork rinds, were a light wisp of food, like a foam that magically hardened. They had the wonderful smoky flavor whose odor hit me as I walked in the door, a nice porky taste and lovely seasonings, but, ultimately, they are a novelty dish that I probably would not order again. (The horseradish aioli they were served with, on the other hand, was begging to be snuck out and enjoyed with an order of fries.)
Our next two dishes highlighted the incredible produce of the season. The burrata salad was served with generous slices of pear that brought the whole dish together. Even Bryan, who normally objects to fruit in salad, gobbled it up.
Hands down, the gnocchi was my favorite dish of the night. It’s served with smoked corn, tiny tomatoes, roasted mushrooms and an amazing truffled butter sauce. The sweet, juicy tomatoes burst in your mouth when you bite them. The corn and the mushrooms together were sweet, salty, smoky, savory, all in one mouthful. This evening, the temperature was still pushing 88. I can only imagine how satisfying this dish would be if evening temperatures ever dropped below 75. Again, Bryan (for this dish, playing the role of “mushroom hater”) was won over by how the flavors played off each other, and actually took a mushroom off my plate.
“We can always take the pizza home,” I told Bryan, even as I knew we were probably over-ordering. Sure enough, I only managed to eat one slice before calling it quits. But the capriccosa pizza was definitely not at fault. It’s topped with clumps of shredded proscuitto, black olives, artichoke, and mozzarella, with just a tinge of smoke edging the sweet creaminess of the mozzarella. It is served with very flavorful Sicilian oregano and a housemade chili oil that you can apply yourself. The crust was just how I like it, not too charred, not too thin. More than a bit of crisp iwhen you finish the toppings, it’s a nice bready rind. I’m definitely looking forward to having more of it tomorrow.
We had been intending to hit Capogiro before heading home, but if there’s one phrase I can’t resist for dessert, it’s “salted caramel”. Barbuzzo drew us in with the salted caramel budino — a glass crock with a chocolate cookie crumb base, filled with vanilla custard, topped with a generous layer of salted caramel (sprinkled with a little extra salt for good measure) and a spoonful of crème fraîche sprinkled with chocolate cookie crumbs. It’s a little like creme brulée and a little like vanilla cream pie and a lot like eating spoonfuls of delicious salted caramel. Needless to say, that little crock went back to the kitchen with barely a speck in it.
Additional pluses: Barbuzzo’s kitchen is open until midnight, every night. They do takeout pizza, in super cute boxes to boot. If you like any of serving dishes your food comes in, I’m pretty sure I’ve spotted many of them for sale at Open House, their homewares shop across the street. If you get there too late to hit up Verde (or your husband is concerned about melting), Marcie has included a selection of her marcie blaine chocolates on the dessert menu. (Hopefully, this is a sign of crossovers to come. I’d love to see some of her barks sitting on the counter at Grocery.)
If it isn’t obvious, I, for one, welcome our new 13th Street overlords, and I can’t wait to try more dishes at Barbuzzo!
Barbuzzo
110 South 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107-4532
(215) 546-9300
Unlike Bindi and Lolita, Barbuzzo does take reservations.
